football concussions

A new plan in Illinois aims to end youth tackle football programs with the goal of preventing Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative disease of the brain caused by repetitive brain trauma.

Ted Harrison is proud that his son, Malik, plays football for Eastern Illinois University on a full scholarship. But ask Harrison about his son’s history of concussions, and he’s not sure he knows the exact number. He thinks the first one occurred during an afternoon practice early in Malik’s playing career at Springfield High School.

The nation's first high school sports governing body to face a class-action concussions lawsuit warns that legal action could result in wealthier schools keeping their football programs and cash-strapped ones eliminating them.

Illinois High School Association Director Marty Hickman said in a Friday news conference that court-imposed policies, such as mandating physicians be present at all practices, would be costly.

Hickman says the result would be that ``the haves are going to continue to have (football) and the have-nots are not going to have it.''